Singapore-listed Alliance Mineral Assets (AMA) is on track to deliver its maiden shipment of lithium concentrate this month, becoming the fourth producer of the lithium-ion battery mineral in Australia.

And it has begun a journey to merge with its 50-50 JV partner, Tawana Resources, as announced recently.

Alliance Mineral stock price

36 c

52-week range

21 – 46 c

PE (ttm)

--

Market cap

S$202 m

Shares outstanding

538 million

Dividend yield (ttm)

--

1-year return

9%

Source: Bloomberg

For the patient and long-term investor, the big story lies in the lithium and tantalum resources yet to be discovered at the Bald Hill project.

To Mark Calderwood, Tawana's MD, who is slated to be the MD of the merged AMA-Tawana entity, Bald Hill will yet deliver lots more riches.

So far, the results of the systematic exploration work on a fraction of the Bald Hill project have been solid -- it's so good, the project won funding from a third party (HK-listed Burwill Holdings) to invest in the necessary infrastructure and sign offtake agreements.

But the lithium resources defined thus far will support a short mine life of 3.6 years only.

Mr Calderwood knows, or is convinced, that further exploration work will uncover lots more lithium resources.

"We haven't done any drilling in the last six months because we didn't want to drill for three years when we had off-takers screaming at us," said Mr Calderwood in the April 2018 edition of Australia's Paydirt. “It is a vast area to explore but we will focus on the mining licences to begin with. Mapping has shown outcropping pegmatites on the ground which have never been drilled before.”

The size of Bald Hill Project is as massive as Singapore's land mass of about 720 sq km.

"There are vast pegmatite fields at Bald Hill, more than 200 sq km of them. The JV has 770 sq km of ground and Tawana has a further 770 sq km owned 100%.

"Both areas are riddled with pegmatites and there has only ever been 12 months of lithium-focused drilling, so there is a decade of exploration ahead of us," said Mr Calderwood.